412 Miu Miu Aoyama

To celebrate the opening of its new Aoyama store, Miu Miu launches a ceremony including Fashion show and Party for 1000 people in the Belle Salle in Shibuya. The Miu Miu store’s most iconic elements are selected and placed like art objects in an exhibition around which the event takes place. With the intention to emphasize their design at a glance, the elements are exaggerated like pop art: scaled up, over-colored, produced of funny materials or simply used for a completely different purpose: A monumentally inflated chair is hanging from the ceiling above the runway; a plastic staircase becomes an unusable sculpture in the lobby; the vitrine furniture becomes a huge, accessible bar distributing not bags but refreshments. Taken away from their original context and program, the iconic elements get a poetic meaning. The artificially created environment makes the guest feel like Alice in Wonderland. In order to reinforce the hybrid character of the event, the spaces are treated like museum typologies: the white gallery space as a reception for the guest; the big hall for an instant perception of the fashion défilé; and the three thematic rooms organized along an enfilade for the party. Instead of just being made as a cheap decor for one single event, the individual objects are seriously crafted and made to eventually be used in other occasions and contexts.

Herzog & de Meuron, March 2015